Skip to Content

(Seal of the monastery of) St. Symeon (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Symeon Stylites the Younger orans on top of a column; the column is barely visible. Two faintly discernible letters at right preserve part of the inscription: Ε| : [Ὁ (ἅγιος) Συμ]εώ[ν]. Double border of dots enclosing a decorative pattern consisting of crosses alternating with pellets.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Double border of dots enclosing a decorative pattern of crosses alternating with pellets.

ΕΥ
ΛΟΓΙΑΤ
ΟΥΑΓΙΟ.
ΣΥΜΕ.
Ν

Εὐλογία τοῦ ἁγίο[υ] Συμε[ώ]ν

Obverse

Bust of St. Symeon Stylites the Younger orans on top of a column; the column is barely visible. Two faintly discernible letters at right preserve part of the inscription: Ε| : [Ὁ (ἅγιος) Συμ]εώ[ν]. Double border of dots enclosing a decorative pattern consisting of crosses alternating with pellets.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Double border of dots enclosing a decorative pattern of crosses alternating with pellets.

ΕΥ
ΛΟΓΙΑΤ
ΟΥΑΓΙΟ.
ΣΥΜΕ.
Ν

Εὐλογία τοῦ ἁγίο[υ] Συμε[ώ]ν

Accession number BZS 1955.1.4946
Diameter 30.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 5 no. 10.1. See also Likhachev, Molivdovuly, p. 153 (no. LXVII, 17)

Translation

Εὐλογία τοῦ ἁγίου Συμεών.

The blessing of St. Symeon.

Commentary

The monastic complex and shrine of St. Symeon the Younger (d. 592), which included a church and the saint’s pillar, was located atop the “Miraculous Mountain” sixteen kilometers southwest of Antioch (G. Vikan, “Art, Medicine, and Magic in early Byzantium”). It would appear that with the Byzantine recovery of Antioch in 969, the cult of St. Symeon flourished anew.

In addition to the present seal, BZS.1958.106.406, and Laurent, Corpus 5.2, no. 1559 bis, seals of the "monastery of the Miraculous Mountain" (Laurent, Corpus 5.2, no. 1650 and Seyrig, no. 288), the revival of the saint’s cult and shrine is also apparent from the composition of a paraphrase of the vita of St. Symeon by the governor of Antioch, Nikephoros Ouranos, about the year 1000 (PG 86[2], cols. 2987–3216).

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 5: The East (continued), Constantinople and Environs, Unknown Locations, Addenda, Uncertain Readings (Open in Zotero)
  • Molivdovuly grečeskogo Vostoka (Open in Zotero)
  • Art, Medicine, and Magic in Early Byzantium (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig (Open in Zotero)